THE former Rangers boss almost caused a riot at a Galatasaray v Fenerbahce match but says that no derby compares to the heat of an Old Firm battle.

Souness: "You have to make the game exciting again. You must have kids saying, ‘I want to be a football player’."

GRAEME SOUNESS knows what the SPFL lacks – and it’s the return of the Old Firm game.

The man who once planted a Galatasaray flag in the centre circle of Fenerbahce’s ground has no doubt where the Glasgow derby stands on a global scale.

“It’s the biggest derby in the world by a mile,” he said at Hampden yesterday.

“I played in Liverpool v Everton games and was involved in Galatasaray v Fenerbahce. There’s no comparison. And, yes, one day I would’ve got round to planting a flag at Celtic Park if I’d stayed on as manager of Rangers.

“If I did it in Istanbul then I would have done it at Parkhead.

“The Old Firm game was madder than Istanbul, although a lot of the players carried guns in Istanbul.”

What you see is what you get with Souness and that’s why his publicity attracting opinions were sought on the day our revamped league set-up was launched.

That invitation created a storm of protest from some fans, so what did he do? Souey left them with another explosion of forthright views that they can argue over until his next visit home.

He said: “Rangers haven’t diminished in size because they’ve gone down to the lower leagues.

“They took their punishment and deserved to be penalised for breaking the rules.

“But the interest in the club remains as high as ever.

“The top league has missed the Old Firm game and the SPFL will get a large injection of interest when the derby returns.

“I managed at Ibrox and know what that game means to people around the world.

“I used to room with Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool and on Old Firm day we’d watch the match if we could. The winner would spend the rest of the day gloating at the other’s expense.”

The charge against the man is that his so-called Souness Revolution at Ibrox over a quarter of a century ago brought all of us to the day when the league set-up itself was the thing that had to be revolutionised.

And his fiercest critics want to know why Souness was the choice of high-profile personality to publicise the official union of four divisions under one body.

But it wasn’t Souness who spent millions on players. It was Sir David Murray who gave it to him to use in the transfer market.

And it wasn’t Souness’ fault misguided club owners put themselves in debt at a level that still haunts them in a frantic attempt to keep pace.

He said: “Big clubs become bigger today. Scotland is a mirror of England in that respect.

“The loss of Rangers from what was the SPL meant the rest of the clubs in that division took a financial hit.

“And general interest in the game took a pounding as well. I sit in a TV studio with Sky and the people around me see Scottish football as having been weakened by Rangers’ move to the lower leagues.

“But have Neil Lennon’s team been bang at it in all of their games since that happened?

“They’re not looking over their shoulder any more.

“Rangers had to take their medicine and there was no witchhunt against them.

“But some people did cut their noses off to spite their face at the time when decisions had to be made about the club’s future. If they had their time over again would they vote the same?

“The sooner Rangers are back, the better it’ll be for everyone.”

Now Souness wants to talk about conciliation and not confrontation for the good of the game in its immediate future.

He said: “There are big, intelligent characters at work inside Rangers. They’ll move on and deal with what faces them.

“The time has come to build bridges within Scottish football.

“That’s why the amalgamation of the SPL and the SFL is a brave move and I hope it works out.

“The fewer decision-makers you have the better it is.

“I had exciting times when I was in Scotland with Rangers

“But the game here couldn’t rest on its laurels and wait for things to change. I’m not involved with Rangers any more so I don’t know if the club has to build bridges with authorities, or vice versa.

“But I know Rangers sell papers and create interest.”

Souness also knows our game is holding out for a hero – and one at every club if possible.

The 60-year-old said: “You have to make the game exciting again. You must have kids saying, ‘I want to be a football player’.

“Sometimes football goes in cycles. When Alex Ferguson walked in the door at Old Trafford he found a group of kids who ended up being the nucleus of the team more or less until the day he announced his retirement.

“You get lucky with players. The French got lucky then the Spanish got lucky. You hope it will be our turn shortly. We must make our game more watchable but we’re fighting against computer games, TVs with 250 channels and an economy that’s struggling.”

Souness doesn’t live here any more but his upbringing in Edinburgh made him one of the game’s highest achievers.

And he believes a nostalgic return to the experiences of childhood would do no harm.

He said: “I spent as much time with a ball as I could when I was growing up. It’s about spending time with the ball and getting a feel for it. All the coaching in the world can’t give you that.”